


the house our hearts built

by pepperfield



Category: Deadly Class (TV)
Genre: Domestic Bliss, F/F, Fluff, Future Fic, Officially Married, Parenthood, Referenced Canon-Typical Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 17:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17666759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pepperfield/pseuds/pepperfield
Summary: Maria gets the happy ending she deserves with Saya.





	the house our hearts built

**Author's Note:**

> I suspect this show is going to break my heart, so before that happens here is a very self-indulgent bit about my favorite girls.

It wasn’t a lie, is the thing. The house, the dream, the niños playing in the yard and the gentle sway of the radio flowing from the kitchen window. Books and records and flowers on the shelves, the tables, around her bed. Their bed. That story book ending, that domestic bliss — the kind meant for plain, soft, ordinary people — that’s what Maria wanted.

“Normal” was the word she used to describe it, but it wasn’t really normality that she was after. No, what Maria wanted was a life of her own, something that she built by hand, brick by brick, until she had a home worth living in. Somewhere to keep her heart safe, somewhere to lay her secrets down to rest. A place where she didn’t have to always be blade-sharp and poison-pretty, a doll on Chico’s arm.

Somewhere she could hold Saya, and, maybe, finally keep her.

It takes fifteen years to reach that point, but they get there. Maria and Saya, they make it out.

\--

“Cold,” Saya hisses when Maria walks careful fingertips across her waist. “Why are you always so cold?”

“I’m not,” Maria says, done teasing the bare skin exposed by Saya’s black shirt riding up. She smoothes her hand down flat to rest on Saya’s hip and smiles at her wife, especially at the dreadful face Saya pulls as she shivers under Maria’s touch. “Maybe you’re just too hot.”

“Do you really think that line will still work on me? I’m not sixteen anymore. I know all your tricks; you can’t play me.” Saya reaches over to poke Maria’s forehead before tracing her thumb over the curve of her cheek, smiling dryly when Maria can’t help but to lean into her touch. She feels beautiful in a way that only Saya can make her feel: dangerous and unbreakable and beloved.

Maria pouts, and Saya’s eyes soften almost immediately. Ha. “No tricks, mi vida. You’re the only thing that keeps me warm at night.” She scooches closer across the bed so the space between them is but a scant few inches. Her hair spills across the pillow and Saya lifts one long curl to twirl it around her finger.

“That’s why I always tell you to get more blankets,” Saya says, leaning forward to kiss her.

“Morning breath!”

“Like you really mind.”

After she pulls away, Saya flops back down onto her pillow like she has no intention of getting up. Her hair is sticking up in all directions, and she whines low in her throat when Maria tries to roll her out of bed. It’s such a stark contrast to the Saya who used to stride out of her room with punctual precision, her makeup perfect and her body language screaming out not to touch her. Only Maria ever saw all of her. Knew all of her. Marcus came to understand both of them more deeply than either had expected, but even he could never unfold all of Saya’s secret sides and secret smiles the way Maria could. Just like no one could ever burn so fiercely and so endlessly for Maria the way Saya does.

Sometimes it aches to look at her, soft and sleep-rumpled against Maria’s side. There are nights when Maria wakes in terror, her heart in overdrive, grasping desperately for her wife because she can’t tell where the dreams end and where reality begins. There are moments when Saya stops in the middle of conversation and reaches out silently just to touch Maria, to know that she is real and solid and whole, because after all they’ve been through it can be difficult to believe that they could ever be allowed to be so happy.

They’re both covered in scars: some from King’s Dominion, many from the years afterward. Some from the years before they ever met. They were both born into unkind worlds, and it took everything in each of them to claw their way out. Away from their families and their expectations. For so long Maria had believed that death and duty came tied together hand in hand. It took a decade and the sight of her beloved standing on her doorstep — bruised and bloody, but never broken — to understand that she could have more.

“Don’t make me go,” Saya complains into Maria’s shoulder. She leaves a series of butterfly kisses fluttering up the curve of Maria’s neck, and Maria laughs, shaking her gently.

“Still tired? It’s already eight; time to get up. You’re lucky nobody’s come crying to us yet about being hungry.”

“I’m never tired,” she grumbles, but she lets Maria pull her up. “I just don’t wanna eat any more bananas. I’m so sick of bananas, Mari.” The twins have become obsessed with the fruit, much to Saya’s dismay.

“I’ll make you an omelet, corazón. Up, up. C’mon, party girl. You can move faster than this. The kids will be up soon, and then we’ll really be in trouble.”

“Alright, I’m coming, I’m coming,” Saya says as she links her arm with Maria’s and lets herself be dragged to the bathroom. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Naomi almost got the drop on me the last night when I went to tuck them in. They’re getting too sneaky.”

“Quick, too. Did you see the other day? Kiko was up the stairs before I even finished saying the word ‘rainboots’. Why does that boy hate boots so much?”

“Because he’s a terror. Our children are too powerful. We should call in reinforcements.”

Maria laughs as they begin brushing their teeth. “You just want to inflict our kids on our friends.” Saya does her best to look innocent, but the toothbrush sticking out of her mouth doesn’t help. It does make Maria’s heart swell with affection for her, though.

“They’ll be good for each other. The kids get to have some fun, and Marcus and Willie get a crash course in the joys of parenthood. A win-win.” 

“And _we_ just so happen to get a night off? How convenient.”

“I’m a good planner.”

“You always were.”

Once they’re both minty fresh and ready for the day, Maria tugs Saya close to her for one last hard kiss before they go wake the twins. She lets her eyes drift close for a moment as she remembers the first time they shared a moment like this, hidden away from the world on Saya’s bed back at King’s. Under the palm of her hand she can feel the jagged scar that Saya received as a parting gift when they left their old lives behind. It’s a reminder of everything they had to fight through to get here. When Maria opens her eyes again, it’s to the sight of Saya watching her closely, patiently.

“Something wrong?” Saya asks, cupping her cheek with a gentle hand. The same hands that have wrought just as much violence as Maria’s have, but are so tender now in this new world of theirs.

“No, I was...just thinking about us.” From the tone of her voice, Saya must know that she’s just feeling sentimental, because she just nods before taking Maria’s hand in hers again.

“You always were a secret romantic. Ready for our next battle?” she asks with a smile as they reach the twins’ room.

Maria squeezes her hand, her skin tingling with warmth when Saya squeezes back. “If you’re with me? Always.”

She can already hear the kids giggling to themselves from behind the door as they plan some kind of sneak attack, and it’s no surprise when Saya pushes the door open and is immediately ambushed by their children in a flying hug. They wind up in a pile on the ground, with Saya pretending to be defeated under their attack, and as Maria watches them fondly, she knows.

The house with the sunbeams falling through the windows, the lights strung across the roof and the overflowing flowers on the sill, the laughter of her children and her beloved — they’re more than just a dream. This is Maria’s life, and it’s everything she ever wanted.


End file.
